2°«S.VII. ApeilSO. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



353 



speaks bvave words, swears Lravo oaths, and breaks them 

 bravely quite traverse athwart the heart of his lover; as a 

 puny alter that spurs his horse but on one side breaks his 

 staff, like a noble goose." 



Much Ado about Nothing. 

 Although Benedick gives a good picture of a 

 soldier in his description of Claudio : — 



" I have known when there was no niusick with him 

 but the drum and fife, and now had he rather hear the 

 tabor and pipe ; I have known when he would have walked 

 ten miles a-foot to see a good armour ; and now will he lie 

 ten nights awake carving the fashion of a new doublet. 

 He was wont to speak plain and to the purpose, like an 

 honest man and a soldier; and now is he turned ortho- 

 grapher." — Act II. Sc. 3. 



Yet the military allusions in this admirable 

 Comedy are but few. Some of these, however, 

 are so purely technical that they have been left 

 unexplained by the commentators. 



Thus Benedick asks Claudio how he will wear 

 his willow garland — 



. . . " About your neck like an usurer's chain, or 

 under your arm like a lieutenanfs scarf." — Act II. Sc. 1. 



Again, in the Fifth Act, Sc. 2., where Benedick 

 tells Margaret " I give thee the Bucklers," we 

 have abundance of illustrations to tell us that the 

 phrase is equivalent to " I yield," but we have 

 never a word to illustrate his meaning when he 

 says : — 



" You must put in the pikes with a vice," 

 — a phrase clearly borrowed by Shakspeare from 

 the language of the camp, and which, though ob- 

 viously technical, I confess myself quite as un- 

 able to explain as my predecessors. 



Hamlet. 

 In this magnificent specimen of Shakspeare's 

 genius, we have, as I think, many traces of his 

 brief military career. His description of a Ghost, 



" Armed at point exactly cap-sl'pie," 

 may not be one of these, but when he speaks of 

 his " wearing his bever up," it is clear from 

 Bullokar that he was correct in so describing the 

 helmet — for that "bever" was in his time used 

 to signify that part of the helmet which when up 

 exposed the face of the wearer, although, as Ma- 

 lone tells us, it properly signified that which was 

 let down to enable the wearer to drink. 



When Fortinbras, at the close, directs that 

 Hamlet shall be buried with the same honours 

 that he would have received had he been slain in 

 battle — 



" . . . . And for his passage, 

 The soldier's musick and the rites of war 

 Speak loudly for him," 



we have probably a reminiscence of funeral 

 honours which Shakspeare himself had witnessed. 

 But can it be doubted that when he says : 

 " . . . . And let it work : 

 For 'tis the sport to have the engineer 

 , Hoist with his oion petar." — Act III. Sc. 4. 



or when he speaks of Slander : 



" Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, 

 As level as the cannon to his blank. 

 Transports his poisoned shot." — Act IV. Sc. 2. 



that we have images drawn from his own military 

 experiences ? 



Are the following less striking proofs of this ? 

 " . . . O my dear Gertrude, this 

 Like to a murdering piece, in many places 

 Gives me superfluous death." 



The " murdering piece" being in Shakspeare's 

 time a specific term for a piece of ordnance, or 

 small cannon, charged with small bullets, nails, 

 &c., and well calculated therefore to " give super- 

 fluous death." 



How entirely technical is the allusion in Ham- 

 let's letter to Horatio : 



" I have words to speak in thine ear shall make thee 

 dumb ; yet are they much too light for the bore of the 

 matter." 



Nor is the following allusion to the proving of 

 cannon one jot less so : 



« therefore this project 



Should have a back, or second, that might hold ■ 

 If this should blast in proof." — Act IV. Sc. 7. 



A few lines previously the King speaks of 

 Laertes choosing 



" A sword unbated; and in a pass of practice 

 Requite him for your father " — 



terms obviously drawn from military experience. 

 Let us hope that the following was not drawn 

 from Shakspeare's own : 



" . . . . Methought I lay 

 Worse than the mutines in the bilboes." 



Merry Wives of Windsor. 



The military allusions in this play are few but 

 characteristic. Bardolph speaks of " conclusions 

 passed the carieres," and Ford, Act III. Sc. 2., 

 tells us — 



" Why this boy will carry a letter twenty miles as 

 easy as a cannon will shoot point blank twelve score." 



The most striking, however, is where Falstaff 

 describes himself when packed in the buck-basket 

 as being — 



" Compassed, like a good bilbo, in the circumference of 

 a peck, hilt to point, heel to head." — Act III. Sc. 5. 



For the simile is drawn from the flexibility of the 

 Spanish blades made at Bilboa, and which were 

 renowned for their excellence in the field. 



Troilus and Cressida. 

 An attentive perusal of this play alone would, 

 I think, convince any unprejudiced reader that, 

 at some period of his life, Shakspeare must have 

 witnessed the operations of war, so full is it of 

 epithets, similes, and allusions drawn from such 

 a source. While any one who admits the possi- 

 bility of Shakspeare having accompanied Leicester 



